‘Inadequate’: Hospitals trust behind Pilgrim Hospital back in special measures

The trust running Pilgrim Hospital in Boston is back in special measures after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission found services to be ‘inadquate’.

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has made the recommendation regarding United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust following the CQC’s latest inspection of Pilgrim Hospital, Lincoln County Hospital and Grantham Hospital.

Having seen improvements to patient care previously, we are disappointed that our latest inspection of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust found these improvements had not been sustained and there had been an overall deterioration in quality and patient safety

Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards

Overall the trust has been rated as ‘Inadequate’, although caring has been rated as ‘Good’. Inspectors found significant concerns in medical care and outpatients at Pilgrim Hospital.

The trust was one of 11 NHS trusts placed into special measures by Sir Bruce Keogh in July 2013 as part of his review of high mortality rates. The trust exited the special measures regime in February 2015 following improvements at the time.

CQC found deterioration across a number of services resulting in the trust being rated inadequate overall following the latest inspection in October 2016. An unannounced inspection was also carried out on 19 December at Pilgrim Hospital’s emergency department following information of concern highlighted to the commission.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “Having seen improvements to patient care previously, we are disappointed that our latest inspection of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust found these improvements had not been sustained and there had been an overall deterioration in quality and patient safety.

“For this reason, we have recommended that the trust should re-enter special measures so that it can receive support at the highest level to deliver all the necessary improvements. The focus of the improvement plan must be to ensure that patients receive safe, high quality and compassionate care at all times.

“In particular, there must be significant improvements in the quality and safety of patient care, leadership and managerial oversight of quality and performance and effective implementation of the existing governance arrangements consistently across all of the services.

“Further improvement is required to ensure the trust is able to manage risk effectively, and cope with patient demand and flow across its services in a timely and sustainable way. I note, for example, that there were significant delays in patients receiving their follow up outpatient appointment across several specialities with more than three thousand appointments being overdue by more than six weeks.

“We raised a number of issues with the trust that needed urgent attention at the time of the inspection. We were impressed with the response by the Chief Nurse who sought opportunities to learn from other trusts to improve patient care

“We will continue to monitor the trust and will return to check on the progress it must make. NHS Improvement will be working closely with the trust to ensure full support is available to make the improvements needed.”